In recent years, a significant amount of research has been done relative to the transmission of diseases from infected ticks to humans. Ticks are known to carry potentially dangerous diseases such as Lyme disease, Lone Star Tick Syndrome and Rocky Mountain Tick Fever. It has been discovered that when a human is bitten by an infected tick, this can result in the disease being transmitted to the human, with possibly dire consequences. For the many people who enjoy outdoor activities and are thereby routinely exposed to ticks, significant effort has been made to educate these people about the hazards associated with tick bites and precautions that can be taken to minimize the potential for tick bites.
One of the easiest, and most well-known, methods to help prevent tick bites is to tuck the bottom end of each pant leg into one's socks. This prevents the ticks from achieving direct contact with the skin of one's legs. However, this is not a perfect solution, and there are some problems associated with following this advice.
Firstly, depending on the fabric and cut of the pants, tucking the pant legs into one's socks can damage the socks. When the bottom of the pant leg is gathered within the sock, the top of the sock must stretch to accommodate the extremely bulky mass of the contained portion of the pant leg. This problem is made worse when bulkier than normal pants, such as pants that feature a boot-cut leg or are made of a very thick or padded material, are involved. As a result, when a user stretches the top of the sock over the bottom of the pant leg, the bulkiness of the pants material may cause over-stretching of the sock's elastic top. Not only may this lead to premature failure of the sock's elastic, but the stretched elastic can apply significant pressure to the user's calf or ankle.
Secondly, tucking a pant leg into a sock can cause the material of the sock to be stretched to a point where openings are created in the sock's weave. Once openings are created in the weave, there is the potential for small ticks, such as deer ticks, to be able to crawl through an opening and onto the wearer's skin. This problem is greatly exacerbated when bulky pants, such as hunting pants, are worn.
Thirdly, there are instances when it is desirable for a person to have one's pants covering the top of one's footwear. For example, a hunter will often wear black, rubberized boots in conjunction with camouflage-colored pants. To maximize the camouflage of the hunter's clothing, it is desirable for the top of the boots to be located within the hunter's pants. This is not possible if the hunter tucks his or her pants into his or her socks. In addition, many people prefer the look of pants that are not tucked into one's socks.